November042012

The trailer for writer-director Shane Black's Iron Man 3 pulls off the rare feat of being downbeat, yet in an awesome way (underscored by great sound design). Iron Man 2 attempted this (for the film itself), and had only limited success. It was still a good film, largely due to the action sequences, but the attempt to give it gravitas didn’t resonate as much as the more straightforward sense of fun that the first instalment had. One might even have concluded that the tone of the Iron Man franchise ought to stick with something along the lines of ‘fun action adventure’ (like the first Iron Man), as opposing to ‘dark and brooding action adventure’ (like Christopher Nolan’s Batman films). However, judging by this trailer, Iron Man 3 looks set to prove the counter-example to that.